1 million without power in North, South Carolina

“Hurricane Matthew is off the map, well into the ocean, but it still is right here in North Carolina”, Gov.

Matthew’s only change is in its “core structure”, hence the change to a cyclone, CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar said.

Flooding is a big concern from coastal Georgia through the eastern Carolinas.

Hurricane warnings remain for the entire coastline of SC and portions of the Georgia and North Carolina coasts.

By Saturday night, North Carolina felt the brunt of Matthew, with more than a foot of rain falling in the southeastern part of the state, causing life-threatening flash flooding, forecasters said.

McCrory said the Federal Aviation Administration had issued temporary flight restrictions to keep the airspace over Lumberton clear for helicopters involved in rescue missions and pleaded with people not to send drones to the region. The center was about 20 miles south-southeast of Charleston, the Hurricane Center said. The storm is projecting hurricane-force winds 25 miles away from its center.

The National Hurricane Center said on Monday morning that tropical storm Nicole was expected to strengthen into Tuesday.

Power companies say it may be several days before power can be restored to all electric customers across SC.

Flooding has been reported in the Bluffton Park neighborhood by residents who did not evacuate. Town officials say the storm washed between 3 and 4 feet of sand onto the street and the community took its worst hurricane hit since Hurricane David back in 1979. Gov. Nikki Haley says the lanes are only reversed for safety, not for comfort. Residents in several cities were urged to evacuate.

About 5,000 workers are entering the storm-struck counties Saturday, focusing their attention on reevaluating the area, restoring power and removing debris, said Georgia Power emergency director Aaron Strickland.

Chatham County officials said in a news release that a tidal gauge at Tybee Island measured 12.5 feet of water at high tide early Saturday as the storm churned just offshore. “State, county officials doing everything they can, but it’s not going to be a short process”. One man was shot and killed by a trooper during a high-water rescue in Lumberton.

In Savannah, Mayor Eddie DeLoach warned those who stayed that they’d be on their own.

Pat McCrory says eight people have died after Hurricane Matthew smacked the state with torrential rains and authorities are searching for five people. A lot of them were in the Savannah area.

Waves crash at Folly Beach, SC, ahead of Hurricane Matthew on October 8, 2016. The deaths included an elderly Florida couple who died from carbon monoxide fumes while running a generator in their garage and two women who were killed when trees fell on a home and a camper. The latter two had medical emergencies and responders were unable to reach them in time because of hazardous weather. Search and rescue teams were still checking remote areas and waiting for flood waters to recede. Haiti’s cholera outbreak has killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010, when it was introduced into the country’s biggest river from a United Nations base where Nepalese peacekeepers were deployed.

The NHC said: “The combination of a risky storm surge, the tide, and large and destructive waves will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline”.

Jacksonville was not battered as heavily as initially feared.

In Goldsboro, Dorothy Hooker, 86, sat in a wheelchair lined up with her sisters, Eloise Tatum, 92, and Sadie Chearod, 90, also in wheelchairs.